Before the Beginning

LaGuardia Airport is crowded and noisy, and it's completely disorienting. B.J. isn't a seasoned traveler; he's been in airports before, but not often. He's never quite sure where to go or what to do, and that's even truer now, with the rush and crush of people all around them. Peg is watching him closely, though, expecting leadership, and so he figures he'd better fake it.

"Over there?" he suggests, pointing in the direction everyone else is going. That's probably his best bet: just follow everyone else.

"Oh," Peg says then in apparent understanding, "to the baggage claim."

Oh yeah, he thinks… of course. Everyone's going to the baggage claim. Always the first order of business after a flight. Get your stuff. Never a wise move to leave the airport without it.

He shakes his head, impatient with himself for not knowing even the most basic things about flying. Hopefully Peg can't tell he's out of his element. They're just married (less than 12 hours!) and he doesn't want to look inept to her in any way.

He places a hand gently on her back and they follow the slow-moving herd. It was a long flight from San Francisco and he's tired, plus there's the time change to think about. The day has been a complete whirlwind, of course, with the wedding and the reception and the immediate departure on their honeymoon. He's a young man, but he sure doesn't feel like one right now.

Should getting married be this arduous?

He smiles. He's overreacting, of course. He just wants to get to the hotel and fall onto the bed and take a nap. Everything will be fine once he's had some sleep. He'll feel like a new man after that.

As they continue slogging to the baggage claim area, he asks his new bride if she'll mind if he takes a nap as soon as they get to the hotel room. She smiles up at him and says of course not. That sounds like a capital idea, she says.

He finds he can't smile back at her. He's exhausted and out of sorts and, let's face it, a little petrified at the idea that he's just gotten married… and he finds that her tendency to say "a capital idea" grates on his nerves right now. If she follows that pearl up with another of her favorite sayings, like "the cat's meow" for example, he just might lose whatever control he's still managing to hang onto.

She tilts her head, perhaps reading something on his face. "B.J.? You feeling OK?"

The smile he plasters on his face feels ridiculous. "Sure. Just tired, that's all."

Mercifully, she nods and stops talking, and he reins in his impatience, his dark thoughts. All he's concerned with is getting their luggage, hailing a cab, and being delivered to their hotel.

Finally they reach the baggage claim and join the throng of travelers standing there watching pieces of luggage roll along the conveyor belt. His vision's become blurry, that's how tired he is, but he stares at the circling luggage, hoping fervently that his and Peg's will appear sooner rather than later.

A woman steps in front of him then, causing him to lose sight of the conveyor belt, and he jigs to the side a few steps. Their bags, of course, have just rolled right on past them, in that second or two when his view was blocked. "Oh shit," he says, and moves to retrieve them from the conveyor belt.

He must have frustration written all over his face, because now a man is at his side, leaning over to pull B.J.'s bag off the belt for him before the damn thing continues on its way. Without even looking at the man, who deftly snags the bag and deposits it at B.J.'s feet, he says, "Thank you… and that one there, please? That's my wife's."

It's the first time he has called Peg "my wife." It rattles him.

The stranger plucks Peg's suitcase from the belt as well, and now B.J. finally lifts his head to take a look at this Good Samaritan.

He looks into blazing blue eyes and, crazy as it sounds, they take his breath away. They're sharp, those eyes, and filled with something that B.J. can't quite name. Intelligence, yes, and kindness… but something more than that. Time seems to spin out as he stares, but then slowly the sounds of the airport start to filter back into his consciousness, and he becomes completely aware of where he is and why… and what he should be doing.

"Uh, thank you again," he says, his voice unsteady. "Appreciate the assistance."

The blue-eyed, black-haired man only says, "Certainly," flashes a brief but stunning smile, and then walks away, over to the next conveyor belt to presumably collect his own luggage.

B.J. doesn't move right away, only watches the man who'd been there like a dream, who'd helped him for no reason… and then suddenly Peg is at his side, saying, "Oh good, you've got them. Let's get out of this nuthouse, B.J. This place is too crowded for me."

He picks up their suitcases and motions her in the direction of the Exit sign. With one last glance over his shoulder, he sees the man with the black hair standing there with his hands in his pockets, waiting patiently for his luggage to come down the magical chute, but then people drift into B.J.'s line of sight and the man's gone. He turns back and follows Peg out of the baggage claim area, already feeling weighted down by the suitcases he's carrying.

Damn, those were gorgeous eyes is the last conscious thought he has about the encounter.

Then he's swept up into the hustle and bustle again, and his mind becomes focused on the task at hand: getting out of the airport and finding a taxi.

An hour later, when he's safely in his hotel room, sprawled out fully clothed on a soft, inviting bed, he closes his eyes and he sees those blue eyes again… the ones that belonged to the stranger at LaGuardia. It doesn't occur to him how inappropriate it is that he's thinking about a man as he drifts off to sleep on the first night of his honeymoon. Nothing's really registering at all as his brain drops into low gear… but he smiles just before he falls asleep… smiles because those eyes were maybe the most captivating things he's ever seen.

Two years later, when he shakes the hand of Hawkeye Pierce at Kimpo (another airport, another time and place, another world)… he'll be briefly jolted when he first looks into the bright blue eyes of his new friend, but he won't have any recollection that he's seen them before.